Correct answer is it depends. Both universes are deep and full of lore. I feel "more tied" to ME, but that isn't so much the universe as it is building an attachment to characters based on having the option to steer the game.

I will also say that the reapers are a more fearsome adversary than the Empire.

There are some great stories in Star Wars (original trilogy, KOTOR1&2, Jedi Outcast, etc), and there are a lot of crap ones in the expanded universe (and new trilogy). Mass Effect benefits from being a more tight-knit universe.

I'll drop out of lurk mode to say true, with the (should be) obvious caveat that it's all based on personal preference.

I only got into the ME universe after downloading ME1 during the xbox live summer sale (so June, I think?), and I am already halfway through ME3 on my second trilogy play-through. Gaming wise, my entire summer has just been Mass Effect. I haven't even touched the other games I picked up during that sale, like Witcher 2, BL2, and Crysis 3.

Eh, I am sure BL2 is fun and that I will enjoy the shite out of it when I get around to playing it, but story-heavy RPG has been my go-to genre for a while now. If anything, I will probably like Witcher 2 more than BL2.

evidently lots of people just hate ME, but the universes themselves are dissimilar. ME universe actually deals with the issues that arise between species and how humanity fits into the social galaxy. SW is completely human focused. Example, in SW no one gave a frick about what the jawas, twi leks, mandalorians, or any other species/cultures social and cultural situations were. They were strictly vehicles to move the story, antagonists, supporting characters, etc. That's not a bad thing in the context of the movies, but you miss out on a lot of the development that occurs in the books.

ME was like we are going to create a story a deep as star wars while challenging players perceptions on what a hypothetical galactic community would be like. You guys probably thought it was boring as frick, but I liked to learn more about the batarians, salarians, and krogan interactions. Looking back at star wars makes those other species look banal and uni dimensional.